Council Committee recommends free insulation across Lewisham

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed a slight preoccupation with insulation over the past year or so. On a personal level, I've been getting my draughty ground floor Victorian flat insulated, while on a political level, the Green Group on the Council has been pushing for a borough-wide free insulation scheme to be introduced.

Back in April, I mentioned that the Sustainable Development Committee, which I chair, was carrying out a review into home insulation in the borough. Over the last few months we've gathered evidence and heard from a number of witnesses, including housing associations, energy companies, other local authorities and the Energy Saving Trust. I spent many hours in September, together with officers, working on the final report, which is now available on the Council's website.

The key recommendations of the committee's report include:
A free insulation scheme for homes across Lewisham. The Committee's report describes a possible three-year programme that would insulate around 25,000 homes and calls on the Mayor to set a target date by which every eligible householder has been offered free cavity wall insulation. The scheme would run in partnership with an energy supplier, who would meet half of the costs, as part of their obligations under the national Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). The remainder would potentially come from prudential borrowing.

A pilot scheme to start insulating 'hard to treat' properties: The Committee wants to see harder-to-insulate solid-wall homes tackled too, as these older houses make up around 40 per cent of Lewisham's stock. The Committee suggested that building up expertise by insulating the 200 Council-owned solid-wall homes that become vacant each year could make Lewisham a national leader in solid-wall insulation work.

Creating new jobs locally: The Committee wants local people to benefit from the jobs and training that could result from the home insulation programme, and has recommended that the Mayor asks Council officers to look at potential training schemes.

Homes have the biggest potential source of energy savings in the borough
An unusually high percentage of Lewisham's CO2 emissions come from its homes - 44 per cent compared to 27 per cent nationally. This isn't because Lewisham's housing stock is less efficient than elsewhere, but more due to the lack of employment and industry in the borough, which means that housing makes up a much greater proportion of total emissions.

The Committee found that while a range of useful initiatives have been introduced to increase energy efficiency, a more systematic, street-by-street approach to insulation is now required in order to save residents money on their fuel bills and to meet the carbon reduction targets in the borough's Carbon Reduction and Climate Change Strategy.

Other recommendations in the report include:

• Creating a register of insulation installers to make it easier for householders to get work done
• The Mayor to consider a demonstration eco-home in the borough for local people to visit
• A new planning rule which says home extensions can be built only if the whole property's energy efficiency is improved
• Investigating how to incentivise private landlords to insulate their homes and help vulnerable tenants

I'll be presenting the Committee's recommendations to the Mayor and Cabinet next week. Since the report was finalised, there have been several more national reports published calling for free home insulation schemes ('Lofty Ambitions' from the Audit Commission and this from the independent Committee on Climate Change) and it seems that barely a week goes by without another body echoing their calls.

I no longer think it's a question of if we get a free home insulation scheme, but more when, and who leads on it. I'd very much like to see Lewisham in the vanguard on this, rather than 'lagging behind' (excuse the pun from yet another report calling for free home insulation, this time from the London Assembly).

A copy of the full report 'Local Warming: Increasing Home Insulation in Lewisham: a scrutiny review' can be viewed here.

NB: Really observant regular readers of this blog may notice some similarity between the key recommendations of this review and the Green Group budget amendment from earlier this year. Personally, I think it's great that our proposals now have cross-party support.

Ladywell Parking Consultation Results

Over the summer, a large number of households in Ladywell ward were consulted on whether residents wanted a controlled parking zone. Parking zones are something of a Marmite issue - residents either love them or hate them. The issue has been hotly debated both in the comments on this blog, and on the Ladywell Society e-mail group.

The results have now been collated and analysed by the Council's Highways team and I've just been sent a copy. As predicted, the results showed high levels of support from the areas closest to Lewisham Station, Ladywell Station and Lewisham Hospital, but support for the proposal was less in the roads further away. Highways hope to send a letter round to residents within the next week or so summarising the results and they propose going ahead with a CPZ (subject to the results of the Statutory Consultation) just in the area that had a high level of support.

The response rate was pretty good compared to other CPZ surveys in the borough, with 620 respondents. In the area where support for a CPZ was high, 298 questionnaires were returned, which represents a 27% response rate. Out of these 298 respondents 199 (67%) were in favour and 99 (33%) were against the proposed CPZ.

In a nutshell, Algernon Road, Marsala Road, Malyons Road, Gillian Street and Ellerdale Street were clearly in favour, while Embleton, Ermine, Algiers, Veda, Brookbank and all the siblings off Ladywell Road (Francemary, Arthurdon, Phoebeth) were clearly against. More marginal areas included Vicar's Hill, Chudleigh Road and Adelaide Avenue.

Two tables follow - the first shows the results overall by street, the second shows the results in the area now proposed to be included in a CPZ, statutory consultation pending. Apologies if these aren't very easy to read - I've tried and failed to work out how to paste tables in to this blog. A clearer map of the proposed zone will be on the back of the letter circulated to residents next week.

Ladywell area CPZ

Road Yes No % for % against
Adelaide Avenue 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Algernon Road 49, 33, 59.8% 40.2%
Algiers Road 8, 27, 22.9% 77.1%
Arthurdon Road 3, 23, 11.5% 88.5%
Brookbank Road 6, 11, 35.3% 64.7%
Chudleigh Road 12, 31, 27.9% 72.1%
Eastern Road 1, 6, 14.3% 85.7%
Ellerdale Street 17, 12, 58.6% 41.4%
Embleton Road 15, 39, 27.8% 72.2%
Ermine road 4, 42, 8.7% 91.3%
Francemary Road 1, 26, 3.7% 96.3%
Gillian Street 9, 1, 90.0% 10.0%
Ladywell Road 7, 21, 25.0% 75.0%
Malyons Court* 1, 0, 100.0% 0.0%
Malyons Road 56, 15, 78.9% 21.1%
Malyons Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Marsala Road 43, 11, 79.6% 20.4%
Peppermead Square 1, 3, 25.0% 75.0%
Phoebeth Road 1, 10, 9.1% 90.9%
Railway Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Slagrove Road 3, 6, 33.3% 66.7%
Veda Road 3, 21, 12.5% 87.5%
Vicars Hill 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Total 260, 360, 41.9% 58.1%
*I'm assuming this means Keswick Court.

Breakdown of results in area of proposed CPZ
Road Yes No % for % against
Algernon Road 49, 33, 59.8% 40.2%
Chudleigh Road 11, 10, 52.4% 47.6%
Ellerdale Street 13, 1, 92.9% 7.1%
Gillian Street 9, 1, 90.0% 10.0%
Ladywell Road 2, 7, 22.2% 77.8%
Malyons Court 1, 0, 100.0% 0.0%
Malyons Road 56, 15, 78.9% 21.1%
Malyons Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Marsala Road 43, 11, 79.6% 20.4%
Peppermead Square 1, 3, 25.0% 75.0%
Railway Terrace 1, 1, 50.0% 50.0%
Slagrove Road 3, 6, 33.3% 66.7%
Vicars Hill 9, 10, 47.4% 52.6%
Total 199, 99, 66.8% 33.2%

So on the whole, the streets in the newly-proposed zones are in favour, with the clear exceptions being Ladywell Road, Slagrove Place and Peppermead Square. With Ladywell Road, the proposals is just to include the section from the station to Adelaide Avenue. Most of those opposed in this area were shopkeepers who are understandably reluctant to pay for the business parking permits. However, if Ladywell Road isn't included in the CPZ but all the surrounding streets are, businesses effectively won't have anywhere to park, as they won't be entitled to buy a permit and as at the moment they won't be able to park on Ladywell Road. Officers therefore feel that they need to include this section of the road in the scheme. The upside for businesses is that there will be more short stay (30 minutes) and pay & display parking for customers.

As far as Slagrove Place and Peppermead Square are concerned, highways have agreed to write to residents and explain the situation and ask them again if they would like to be in or out of the zone. Officers' concern is that if they are not in the zone, they will bear the brunt of the commuter parking from the hospital, which Malyons currently suffers from.

Chudleigh Road and Vicar's Hill - with both of these roads, TfL have been pushing strongly for double yellow lines in places, including outside some houses to allow buses to get passed. Although the majority in Chudleigh Road were against the CPZ, there was support at the end nearest Ladywell Road. Therefore the proposal is to make that part of the CPZ in the hope that it will also ease the situation for buses, without the need for yellow lines. The same is proposed for Vicar's Hill, which was marginally against the CPZ.

I asked about the car club bay, and there is likely to be one, but I'm waiting for confirmation of where.

I hope this helps to clarify any confusion

Utilities Companies to need permit to dig up Lewisham's roads

I've recently received the following briefing note from Lewisham Highways department, which might be of interest, and sounds like good news:

"Lewisham has been successful in its application to run a street works permitting scheme.

Lewisham along with Transport for London, The City of London and 17 other boroughs submitted a common application called The London Permit Scheme to the Department of Transport in August. This application has now been approved with an expected start date of 11th January, although this date has yet to be confirmed.

The scheme requires a permit to be granted before works can be undertaken on the public highway. Permitting will enable Lewisham to better plan and coordinate road works throughout the borough offering benefits such as opportunities for utility companies to work together at sites. This will aid the smooth flow of traffic and reduce disruption for road users.
For further information please follow link to the TfL media page."

Green MEP Jean Lambert calls on Sri Lanka government to return camp detainees

I thought this might be of interest in particular to the many members of Lewisham's Tamil community who marched in London last weekend calling for an end to the detention in camps of many thousands of civilians in Sri Lanka.

The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution calling for the rapid return of the 250,000 detainees still held in camps in northern Sri Lanka following the defeat of the LTTE by the government earlier this year. MEPs also called on the Sri Lankan government to urgently deliver humanitarian assistance to the Tamil civilians held in the camps, where there are serious concerns over living conditions, including overcrowding and inadequate access to clean water, sanitation and medical facilities.

Humanitarian and human rights organisations also claim that the Government has denied adequate access to the camps, where citizens are being screened before resettlement.

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London and Chair of the South Asia Delegation in the European Parliament, commented:

“It is deeply worrying that so many people are still being held in these camps. The Sri Lankan government must now take every necessary step to return home those detained as quickly as possible and ensure that humanitarian agencies are able to deliver assistance.

“Press freedom has severely suffered during the years of conflict and it is now imperative that the media is able to operate without the fear of violent repercussions and intimidation.

“The people of Sri Lanka deserve lasting peace and freedom, now that this 25 year battle has finally come to an end. The European Parliament therefore calls on all sides to work towards a lasting, peaceful settlement based on democracy and respect for human rights.”

Click here to view the full text of the resolution.

For previous posts on Sri Lanka see here and here.

Ladywell Village Improvement Group gets 'certificate of excellence' at Lewisham in Bloom awards

Congratulations to Ladywell Village Improvement Group, who were awarded a 'Certificate of Excellence' at last week's Lewisham in Bloom awards.

The picture above shows LVIG volunteers getting their hands dirty planting bulbs, cyclamen etc in the troughs along Ladywell Road and Algernon Road last weekend.

LVIG writes:
"LVIG had no time to formally enter the competition as the first planters were installed just before the deadline. However, the judging panel stopped to look at what the local community had achieved in Ladywell while on their tour of the borough, and were suitably impressed by the effort we had made.

Lewisham has gone on to pick up a Silver Gilt Award in this year’s prestigious London in Bloom awards - and we are equally proud to have contributed to that success.

A huge thank you to all who have contributed to our community planting, whether it be helping fill the planters and baskets with colourful displays, keeping them watered and free of litter, or supporting fundraising events, such as our benefits gigs at the Ladywell Tavern. All these activities have changed Ladywell for the better through the addition of greenery and colour into the streetscape environment.

We have made a fantastic start and hope to build on this with re-stocked planters and eventually new trees - let's continue to work together towards winning first prize next year!"

Thanks are also due to Envirowork Lewisham and the Council's Green Scene Team for their support.

LVIG have also confirmed that the Christmas Market will again take place outside Ladywell train station this year on 12th December. Organisers write:

"This year (as well as hoping for a little less rain!) we hope to include a vibrant mix of arts and crafts, local produce and hot and cold food, all supplied by craftspeople and businesses from the local community.

A number of us are busily working away on the finer details of making the market happen, however we still need a little help. If you know a generous local electrician who would be willing to help set up generators and lighting on the day then please get in touch.

We also still have some availability for stalls, so if you or anyone you know is a budding crafter, or who bakes a mean mince pie, then please email us to find out more about how to get involved."

The benefit gig in Ladywell Tavern the week before last was well attended, which should hopefully help to boost the coffers for the Christmas Market slightly.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change, 10:10 and all that.

OK, so October 15th is blog action day and the theme this year, appropriately, is climate change. I say appropriately, because this December is the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen and it really is make or break time for the planet on this - either we take the action needed, and reduce our emissions in a sensible and equitable way (ie those countries already emitting far more per capita have to take the biggest hit), or we let our governments faff around with carbon offsetting etc and just pretend they're taking the action needed.

Anyway, a few climate change related bits and bobs I've been meaning to post.

1) 10:10 Campaign
Lewisham Council (and a number of individual councillors, including me, gulp) have signed up to the 10:10 campaign. Hurrah! This is a campaign calling for individuals, businesses and organisations to pledge to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Scientists say world emissions must peak and begin to fall within the next few years. That means we need deep cuts in the developed world as quickly as possible. The longer we leave it, the smaller our chance of avoiding disastrous warming.

Anyway, I asked the question below to the Mayor for September's Full Council meeting, and as you can see got a positive reply. In addition, a Lib Dem motion also calling for the council to sign up to 10:10 was passed unanimously.

Me: "Many Lewisham residents will be signing up to the recently launched 10:10 campaign, pledging to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% next year. The borough's stated target in our Carbon Reduction and Climate Change Strategy is to reduce emissions from council operations by 10% by 2008-2010. Are we on track to meet or exceed this target by the end of next year? Will you sign Lewisham Council up to the 10:10 campaign, and better still, can you persuade our partners in the Local Strategic Partnership to do the same?"

The Mayor: "Lewisham Council is on target to deliver our Climate Change Strategy target of a 10% reduction in carbon emissions from Council operations. The Council has already gone further than this and set a new target of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from Council operations by 2015/16 compared to 2007/08. This target was developed in partnership with the Carbon Trust and is backed with a detailed carbon management programme identifying actions across the Council.

I support the 10:10 campaign and have signed up. I have also written to all our partners on the Local Strategic Partnership to encourage them to join 10:10 and commit to cutting their emissions."

So that's the easy bit done - now we've got to crack on and make sure that it happens! You can sign up to join the 10:10 campaign here, and there are also lots of easy tips on ways to save 10% of your emissions. If you're currently leading a bit of a jet-setting, gas-guzzling lifestyle, saving your 10% should be as easy as cutting out a couple of long-haul flights, if like most UK residents you don't regularly fly and you're already making steps to do your bit, it may require a bit more thought, but for most people, this first 10% is relatively easy.

2) Operation Insulation Part 2!
I still need to sit down and work out exactly what my carbon footprint is and how to reduce it by 10%, but I have made a bit more progress on 'Operation Insulation' this week. Back in January, I had my draughty floorboards insulated and sealed,which was part 1 of my plan to make my flat more energy. This week, I had my long-awaited, FSC-certified double glazing installed, which is part two.

Next week, hopefully, Dhanya, the local builder who did my floors, is coming back to put some insulation on the 'external' walls in my rooms. I will lose a little bit of space in my rooms (it will be about 7cm thick, once the wood fibre insulation board and the plaster rendering are in situ), but not too much as I live in a terrace so I only need the front and back walls done. Anyway, a picture of my new windows, of which I'm inordinately proud, waiting for the rest of the insulation to be fitted around them.

The flat already feels warmer, and much quieter, particularly in the front room, where acoustic glass has really deadened the noise of the traffic, the squeaky brakes of the 122 bus etc.

3) Take part in the Wave - 5th December

On Saturday 5 December 2009, ahead of the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will flow through the streets of London to demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all. The Wave is organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition. I will be there, along with lots of other Greens - join us in the UK’s biggest ever demonstration in support of action on climate change.

4) Countdown to Copenhagen - tell Joan what you think
Lewisham Deptford MP and minister for energy and climate change, Joan Ruddock, is holding a public meeting at the Laban Centre this Saturday. She has invited 3000 households in the constituency to a discussion about climate change and Copenhagen.

The details of the meeting are: Saturday October 17, 10:30 - 12:00, Laban, Creekside, SE8 3DZ.

I won't be going, as I'll be out and about campaigning in Ladywell to elect Darren as the next MP for Lewisham Deptford, but the demands of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition seem a good place to start when discussing what we might want out of the Copenhagen talks:

Quit Dirty Coal

Protect the Poorest

Act Fair & Fast

Plus a nation-wide free home insulation programme to be rolled out, pronto, please!

Transition Brockley club night launch - Saturday 14th November

Transition Brockley are launching their first local club night on Saturday 14th November, from 7pm-1am, at Brockley Social Club. It looks like it will be a thoroughly entertaining evening, with a live band, DJs and even a spot of ‘swishing’ - whereby a ‘resident magician’ will 'transform' your old clothes so that you can go home with something entirely different to wear!

The aim of the night is to have a whole bunch of fun at the same time as teaching people about the ideas behind transition towns and ways in which they can get involved. I'm definitely going to go along, so with any luck I'll see you there - although I hope for your sake you don't end up with any of my old clothes!

If you'd like further information on the Transition Towns movement, visit www.transitionlewisham.org.uk or www.transitiontowns.org

'Up the Line': Evening Remembrance Performance in Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries, 11th November

This is a guest post from John McKiernan (ex of Moonbow Jakes) about 'Up the Line' an event he is organising in Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries for Armistice. The event will take place on 11.11.09 from 7.30 until 8.41 (1 hour 11 minutes).

"War is ultimately about death and destruction, avoiding war is by remembering the pain and suffering associated with it rather than victory or defeat. There is probably no more a war in history that teaches us this than the Great War.

With the passing of the last witnesses to WWI there appears a need to entrench the memory of this war, more than any other, on people of today. On all sides a whole generation was lost and to avoid repeating a mistake often means a strong reminding once in a while.

Brockley Cemetery is a beautiful, almost unaltered space, with two very poignant memorials to those who died from their wounds on their return to the UK during WWI. Local men in the main, from early teens to their forties. Many, if not most local people know little or nothing of the memorials or those who are engraved on the walls, including those who perished in Deptford during the first London Blitz of WWI from the Zeppelin attacks.

On Armistice Day, November 11th at 7.30 an event is to be held to recognise the sacrifice of these young men and others and the work of those who have tried to keep their memory alive. The intention is to create a simple experience that is sober rather than sombre yet powerful enough to lodge deep in the mind of those who attend. It is not intended as a history lesson but a history reflection that will be easy for all ages.

The event will be a lantern lit walk through the cemetery during darkness and regardless of the weather conditions. The route can be from either Brockley Road to the Ladywell gates or vice versa. The route will have poets and classical performers reciting from appropriate pieces and writings of the time. Contemporary dance will capture the essence of passing and a silent film and soundscape expressing the 'ordinariness' of how the War became during this period.

The intention is not to create an education event or an exploration of people's opinion of war; the intention is to lodge an experience in the mind that will create questions and memory. The purpose is to attract as many families and younger people as possible, to have an unusual experience in an unfamiliar environment that will bond in the psyche. In the days, months, years that follow it would be hoped the audience will occasionally remember the evening of poetry, classical music, dance and a beautiful local cemetery and by association WWI, and the impact and loss it caused.

People are encouraged to come with differing generations of family, friends and neighbours including the young and the senior. A slow walk will take approximately 25 minutes maximum you can arrive anytime up to 8.25pm. The Rivoli ballroom have kindly offered to open for people to gather to discuss and chat regarding their experience of the evening.

This event involves many individuals and organisations who have made this event a reality. Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries, the Royal British Legion club in Crofton Park, many departments, officers, councillors and the Mayor of Lewisham Council, Lewisham Police who will be organising a guard at each entrance, Max Media Arts (Brockley Max), Mr Lawrence's, Rivoli, Oscars of Ladywell, South London Press and a huge array of talented artists from across London who will be performing in silhouette on the night.

Full details will be on the Brockley Max website and the event is bought to you by Moonbow Jakes events. This is a borough wide event to honour all those who died from and in Lewisham and remembering those from overseas who are also laid to rest on our behalf."

Battery recycling available now in Lewisham libraries

A good bit of news this week from the Council's waste team - battery recycling points are now available in libraries across the borough.

Lewisham Council has teamed up with the environmental organisation BatteryBack to encourage residents to dispose of their batteries in a 'BatteryCan'.

In the UK we recycle less than 3 per cent of our batteries, compared to over 50% in Belgium.

Batteries contain various hazardous metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium. It can be damaging to the environment to mix them in with normal domestic waste. And, as the Council press release rightly points out, the materials that can be recovered from the correct treatment of batteries are the very same that are being mined (at great cost) in other parts of the world; therefore battery recycling helps to conserve more natural resources.

And for anyone who thinks that the European Parliament is a completely useless institution that doesn't ever do anything, this has all come about as a result of European legislation, backed by the Greens, back in 2006. The European Directive states that 25 per cent of all batteries placed on the market must be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 per cent by 2016. Currently, the UK recycles less than 3 per cent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries being discarded every year. I'd like to think that this would all have happened in the UK without the European Union, but in this case it definitely seems to have dragged us towards where we need to be far quicker than would otherwise have happened.

Local events coming up . . .

There are a number of events coming up locally over the next few days that are well worth supporting:

The LVIG committee has been hard at work organising two events to brighten up Ladywell this weekend:

Christimas Market Benefit Gig in Ladywell Tavern this Saturday
On Saturday evening The Grey Cats will be performing at Ladywell Tavern. This benefit gig is in aid of the Ladywell Christmas Market, which is in serious needs of funds to make it happen this year. Come and join us for great music and dancing from 8pm on Saturday 10th October, and help make it a Christmas Market to remember.

Bulb Planting this Sunday
On Sunday afternoon LVIG will be out in force to refresh the planters and baskets along Ladywell Road and Algernon Road with some autumn and winter colour, and to get our spring bulbs in. Meet from 2pm onwards on the corner of Ladywell Road/Algernon Road. Please bring any small gardening tools you may have with you - especially trowels, forks, bulb planters, buckets and watering cans.

And advance notice of a few more events coming up:

FOBLC Workday in the cemeteries
On the 18th October, Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries have a workday in the cemeteries from 10am-1pm. More volunteers are always welcome, meet at the chapel in Brockley cemetery near the Ladywell Road gate. They will hopefully also soon be unveiling their new notice board, paid for out of the localities fund.

Two volunteering events in Ladywell Fields in November
Saturday 14 November from 1.30 p.m. - Hedge whip planting session in the northern field, run by Glendale. Any children must be supervised by an adult. Contact: Vicki on 020 8318 3986 (Tues-Thurs only) or e-mail her. Meet at the café/WC building in the north/Ladywell field.

Sunday 15 November from 10.00 a.m. - River clean-up organised by Thames 21, in liaison with Glendale and the User Group. We need as many volunteers as possible for this please. 25 or so would be good! Any children must be supervised by an adult. Contact: Chris Coode, Thames 21. Meet in the Park at the end of Malyons Road.

New licensing application: Morley's, 6 Loampit Hill

We've received details of a new licensing application for Morleys on Loampit Hill. Fast food places don't need licences to operate up to 11pm, but they do if they want to operate after then. This is an application to allow Morleys to open until 2am everyday except Sunday, when it could open until 11pm, and to open 24 hours over the New Year holiday period.

"Please be advised that the following premise has applied for a NEW / VARIATION Premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003.

6 Loampit Hill
London
SE13 7SW

Sale of late night refreshment on & off the premises Monday – Saturday 11:00 – 02:00 & Sunday 11:00 – 23:00.

New Years eve to start of permitted hours on New Years Eve until end of permitted hours on New Year's day."

Any comments should be sent to Lewisham's licensing team at the address below, by 2nd November.

Licensing team

Laurence House, 5th Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, Catford SE6 4RU

Tel: 020 8314 6400

Email: licensing@lewisham.gov.uk

Gordonbrock Primary School - planning application submitted

A planning application has been submitted for the partial demolition and partial rebuild of Gordonbrock Primary School. The application can be viewed here. The plans are a revision of those submitted and passed back in 2005, before the project was shelved due to funding probems. I'm pleased that this is again now firmly back on the agenda and my understanding is that if planning permission is granted this Autumn, the school will be decanted and the rebuild start in January.

Part of the reasoning behind the rebuild is to enable the school to go from 2.5 form entry to 3 form entry, which as well as creating much needed extra primary school places, avoids the need to have classes with mixed age groups. I'm pleased that it's proposed to retain parts of the Victorian school building, that the awful portacabins in the playground that are long past their sell-by date will finally be going and of course that more, larger classrooms will be built.

Last week I went along to a drop-in session at the school to look at the plans. There were a number of positive aspects to them, with lots of outside play space, including provision for outdoor teaching areas and for the recently-acquired play equipment and raised borders to be incorporated into the new designs. One of the pupils asked the officer 'Are you going to cut down our trees?' and was assured that the trees would be retained, which is just as well, as this 9-year old looked ready for some direct action to protect them if the need arose!

However there were a number of aspects to the design which left me distinctly underwhelmed, in particular the wasted roof space, with no plans for either living roofs, solar panels, rainwater recycling or anything else that should frankly be standard in contemporary design. The school will be fulfilling its 20% renewables target with a biomass boiler - this seems to be the renewable energy source of choice for schools at the moment, (mostly on value for money grounds), which is good as far as it goes, but there are no plans to exceed the minimum requirement. I had expected to see a few other 'green gubbins', such as a few solar panels on the roofs, even if more for educational purposes, rather than making a significant contribution to the school's energy needs, but currently none are proposed.

Having just spent the past few months on the Sustainable Development Committee doing an in-depth review of home insulation within the borough (more on this soon), I had also expected the rebuild to incorporate some internal insulation of the Victorian buildings that are being retained, to bring them as close as possible to modern building requirements. Again, it doesn't seem to be on the cards. This looks like a missed opportunity to explore how to make our Victorian/Edwardian buildings in the borough more energy efficient, which will also be key to other school rebuilds/refurbs around the borough.

Having discussed various aspects of the design with the council officer leading on the project, as well as representatives from Bouyges, the PFI contractor, I was left with the impression that Gordonbrock was being short changed on sustainability due to cost restrictions. (Bouyges is the company behind the recent rebuild of Prendergast Ladywell Fields school, which personally I think is a distinct disappointment in sustainability terms.) Recycling is all well and good, but when you recycle building plans from 5 years ago, you need to ask what has moved on in that time and surely, sustainable design issues given the need to reduce our carbon emissions have leapt right up the global agenda in the past five years.

I don't wish to be overly negative as I want to wholeheartedly support the school rebuild, which parents, pupils and staff have been waiting for for a very long time now, but I fear that unless the contractors are pushed a bit further on the designs, Ladywell is going to get a good new primary school, with a much improved learning environment, but not the exemplar of sustainability we should be aiming for. Officers have promised to see what more can be done to address some of my concerns, so I await their feedback on these discussions and am hoping for a few improvements before this gets to planning committee stage.

Exciting projects for Ladywell

Last night’s well-attended Ladywell Assembly made further decisions on the £50k Mayor’s Fund so now all of it is allocated. The projects are:

· Ladywell Road Streetscape and Design Action Plan to investigate options for improvements (£10,000)
· Youth Activity and Coach Development Programme by Lewisham Community Sports for a one year scheme (£7,400)
· Youth Village project to offer recreational, social and educational activities for 13-19 year olds – seed funding for one year (£10,000)
· Hilly Fields (Francis Drake) Community Bowling Green to install a modern irrigation system for the green (£8,257)
· The Ahoy Centre working with the Ladywell Safer Neighbourhood Team for a project with young people that are at risk of offending, and a taster day at the sailing centre in Deptford for local young people (£3,090)
· Get the Message Mural Project to learn about painting murals as well as their public perception, and then create a mural in the local area (£4,965)
· AlertBox Scheme of local businesses on Ladywell Road working with the Safer Neighbourhood Team for an electronic neighbourhood watch scheme to reduce low-level crime and anti-social behaviour (£6,288)

These projects will now be submitted to Mayor & Cabinet in October and November for final approval. I think all of them will make lasting improvements in the area in their different ways and am really looking forward to seeing them happen.

Improvements in Ladywell - Assembly to decide on Tuesday

£50k of council funding (“Mayor’s Fund”) are available this year for improvements in Ladywell ward, and decisions about the projects this money should be spent on are made by the Ladywell Assembly. At its last meeting in June, the Assembly approved two proposals – an urban design streetscape project for Ladywell Road (£10k) and an activity and leadership scheme for young people (£7.4k). These proposals are going to be submitted to Mayor & Cabinet in October for final approval.

Over the summer, more work has been done on a range of other proposals for the remainder of the Mayor’s Fund (£32.6k), and these are going to be presented to the Assembly on 22 September for a decision on funding. There is going to be an opportunity to ask questions about the projects and activities before the vote. At the last Assembly lots of good and very searching questions were asked, and the proposers clearly felt that they were thoroughly “grilled” in the process. Hopefully the forthcoming Assembly will be equally engaged and informative – as there are more projects than funding is available, the Assembly will face some tough decisions. So please come along, join the debate and take part in the decision-making – it is open to anyone who lives, works or studies in the ward so it doesn’t matter whether you have attended previous assemblies or not. Please encourage young people to come as well as one of the priorities is youth provision.

The list of proposals includes different programmes of activities aimed at older teenagers, a safety scheme for local shops, cultural activities, a tree planting scheme and a graffiti workshop. All proposals approved by the Assembly will then be submitted to Mayor & Cabinet for final approval.

Proposals for the annual Locality Fund of £10,000 are still welcome. The criteria for the Locality Fund are more flexible as it does not have to be spent on the ward priorities. Please contact me for further information.

There will also be an opportunity to meet the new Sergeant of the local Safer Neighbourhood Team and some of his colleagues, and you can find out what’s happening locally from the community updates with news from local groups and anyone wishing to share information about the area.

The meeting is going to take place on Tuesday, 22 September from 7-9pm in the modern science block of Prendergast School on Adelaide Avenue, SE4 1JL.

Ladywell Big Bulb Plant: Sunday 11th October

Ladywell Village Improvement Group (LVIG) are organising another planting session on Sunday 11th October. The aim is to perk up the planters (which are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves) and put some bulbs in them, so they look good over the Winter and in the Spring. LVIG have been given 250 free bulbs by the Big Bulb Plant (organised by the same people as were behind the Big Lunch).

At LVIG's meeting on Wednesday there was lots of discussion about possible streetscape improvements, as well as the planting day and plans for the Christmas market. Planning for the Christmas Market is still at fairly early stages, but the tentative date set is for 12th December.

Lots happening locally this weekend

Just a quick post to flag up a few of the many events happening locally over the weekend.

1) London Open House: loads of buildings that aren't normally open to the public are open this weekend, including 13 in Lewisham. The one I'm particularly keen to go and visit is the self-build house on Walters Way, Honor Oak, which has been eco-retrofitted by the same builder who did my insulation. I've heard lots about it so I'm keen to see the finished product.

2) Lewisham Green Party Action Saturday: not quite so well known as Open House, but important to us, it mostly involves shoving lots of newsletters through doors, with a dash of door-knocking for those who are up for it, followed by food and frivolities in the evening. New volunteers always welcome; we've just taken delivery of our Autumn newsletter, which is to go out to homes across Lewisham Deptford constituency, and would welcome as much help as possible delivering them. Just turn up at 202 Malpas Road, SE4 1DH from 10am onwards.

3) Mike's 50th birthday party: this is invitation only, but I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my fellow ward councillor.

4) Folkus Festival, Saturday 19th Septmber, 12pm-12am, Sanford Housing Co-op, Sanford Walk New Cross SE146NB. "BANDS, ART, FILM, PERFORMANCE, COMMUNITY, DISCUSSIONS. Some of you will know about Sanford Housing Co-Op…a little oasis in New Cross with a newly built, award-winning bikeshed/recycle-stage made from railway sleepers, beautiful gardens and communal housing for urban nomads of all descriptions.

This year sees the return of the Sanford annual celebration. For the last 30 years Sanford has staged a free, inclusive community event that is renowned for promoting great music and art as well as co-operative/sustainable living. "

(Incidentally, there was also a great write up in today's Guardian on the work Sanford Housing Co-op have done to reduce their carbon emissions.)

5) Lewisham Country Fayre: Sunday 20th September. For the third year running, this popular event is taking place in Cornmill Gardens, from 12-6pm.

6) Also on Sunday, but a bit further afield in Herne Hill, the Urban Green Fair is taking place in Burgess Park, 11am-7pm. There are usually a huge range of stalls, talks and events showcasing the best in green business, community groups etc, and entirely powered by the wind and sun. Transition Lewisham are having a stall there, and a couple of people who were involved in Brockley Max are also attending, with a view to organising a Lewisham Sustainability Fair in the Spring.

7) And finally, on Sunday, Lewisham Green Party members are likely to be humiliated by the superior forces of Greenwich Green Party's 'petanque' team, in Twinkle Park in Deptford. If you know your boules, please do come and join us, meeting at 4pm in the Dog and Bell!

UPDATE: I forgot the big central London bike ride formerly known as Freewheel, now rather crassly named after its sponsor. Anyway, still a good event regardless of the sponsor. This Sunday, details here. There is a feeder ride leaving Ladywell Fields at 10.15am I believe.

Road Resurfacing Programme: Brookbank Road is top of the list (hurray!)

Highways have now posted up onto the Council's website their proposed resurfacing programme for the remainder of this municipal year. Phase 1, which included Eastern Road, has now been completed, and top of the list for phase 2, is Brookbank Road. This is good news as Brookbank Road has been in an appalling condition for a number of months now, as residents are all too aware (it deteriorated after the bad weather back in January). As councillors we can and do flag up residents' concerns about the state of roads, but the decision is ultimately taken by the Mayor, based on highways officers' advice, which in turn is based on a condition survey they carry out of the roads each year.

Hilly Fields Crescent, a section of Ladywell Road and parts of Harefield Road and Tressillian Road are also on the list. Unfortunately, the lower part of Tressillian Road, leading down to St Margaret's Road, is not on the list, although it has been in a terrible state for a number of years now. I suspect this is because it is not on the 484 bus route, which a number of the other roads being resurfaced are, which bumps it up the priority list.

Not as many roads on the list as I would like to have seen, but quite a chunk of them are around Brockley and Ladywell, and highways officers are well aware of the poor state of a lot of the roads in the conservation area.

Recent Mayor & Cabinet Decisions pertinent to Ladywell and Brockley

There were a number of decisions taken at Wednesday's Mayor & Cabinet meeting that I thought worth drawing to local residents' attention.

Streetscape improvements on cards for Brockley and Ladywell?
Item 6 of the agenda was about proposals for Lewisham's Local Implementation Plan (LIP), which is the plan for how to spend money allocated from Transport for London (TfL) within the borough.

I'm pleased that the proposals include funding ear-marked both for Ladywell Road and Brockley Road. The Ladywell proposals include the long overdue 'toucan' crossing on the east side of Ladywell Bridge, to make it easier for cyclists to get onto the Waterlink Way path (Lewisham Cyclists and local residents have been calling for this for years) as well as (hopefully) the chance to get the bigger streetscape improvements on Ladywell Road that Ladywell Society and more recently Ladywell Village Improvement Group (LVIG) have been calling for.

I know that representatives from LVIG have already had early discussions with highways with a view to ensuring that this is a community led project, rather than a highways consultation imposed from above, and we will be keeping a watching brief to ensure that remains the case. You may recall that the last Ladywell ward assembly allocated £10k of its money to fund urban design work to develop plans to improve Ladywell Road, so we now need to work with highways officers and LVIG to see how that can best be spent.

The proposals for Brockley include works around Brockley Cross area and the station, but also Brockley Road itself from Brockley Cross to Adelaide Avenue, though it's not clear exactly what shape these works will take yet, and whether it will just be the roads, or also the pavements and wider streetscape issues that get addressed. As a Ladywell ward councillor, I'm particularly interested in the stretch of Brockley Road from the junction with Wickham Road to Adelaide Avenue, but I suspect my colleagues in Brockley will be keeping a close eye on proposals for Brockley Cross and Coulgate Street.

You can read the report in full here (p9-12 have the Brockley and Ladywell details). Also worth noting are the significant sums involved in repairing and maintaining Victorian bridges within the borough, including a massive £500k to re-waterproof Ladywell bridge.

Youth Provision and 'Myplace' Funding
In another item on the Mayor & Cabinet agenda, which is disappointing for Ladywell (but positive for Sydenham) is the decision to focus the Council's bid for 'Myplace' funding for a youth centre in Sydenham Wells Park, rather than the project they had previously considered to bring Ladywell Playtower back into use. The report states:

"The proposed site for a Myplace application was identified through an analysis of current youth service provision, levels of deprivation, teenage pregnancy rates, anti-social behaviour and crime hotspots, and ongoing engagement with young people and key stakeholders.
6.2 Based on this, two sites came to the fore for potential development: the Playtower site in Ladywell and Wells Park Youth Hall in Sydenham. An exploration of these options concluded that a redevelopment of the Ladywell Playtower as a youth centre would not align with cross-Council strategies, and as a Grade II listed building, would prove too costly to refurbish."

The question now of course remains what will happen to Ladywell Playtower, when, and will some kind of community use be retained?

Gordonbrock Primary Rebuild
This was in the confidential part of the meeting as it was dealing with contracts and commercially sensitive data, so I can't say too much, but plans are proceeding with the proposed rebuild, with a view to decanting the school, and starting works in January, assuming all planning permissions and the decant site are ready by then. Part of the reasoning behind the rebuild is to increase it from 2.5 form entry to 3 form entry. My understanding is that one of the existing Victorian buildings will be incorporated into the new design.

Brockley Mess - new cafe opened today on Brockley Road

I'm writing this from inside Brockley Mess - the new cafe that has opened today on Brockley Road, in what used to be Moonbow Jakes. I'm really impressed with what they've done with the place - it used to be rather dark and dingy (which suited Moonbows, as it was more of an evening, live music kind of place), but now it's all light and airy, with great colourful tiles and wallpaper, and some huge old black and white photos on the wall (one is of Brockley County School, what is now Prendergast Hilly Fields and the other is of South East London Technical College - Lewisham College as now is).

Brockley Mess is run by the people behind Royal Teas in Greenwich and there is definitely more of an emphasis on food and the day time trade than Moonbows (they're currently only planning to open until 7pm, but might open later at the weekend if demand is there). There are not one but SIX types of cake, all baked on the premises, including a delicious gluten-free and vegan orange one which I tried. They also do a wide range of all day breakfasts, platters to share and even cream teas!

Oh and they have wi-fi (hence I'm writing this now).

I don't normally do quite such shameless plugs for businesses on this blog, but when Moonbows closed it left a gaping hole on this stretch of Brockley Road so I'm really delighted that we've now got a worthy replacement and I wish Brockley Mess every success.

PS: A big thank you to Lewisham town centre manager Liz Bannister who I believe played a role in this all happening.
PPS:It also looks like something will be opening soon in the former Brockley Kitchen site, which will hopefully be one less empty shop a bit further up the road too.

Introducing Charlotte . . .

I'm not long back from a well-attended local party meeting where we selected the first of our council candidates for the May 2010 elections. Here in Ladywell, Mike is standing down, sadly, but Ute and I are standing again.

I'm delighted to introduce Charlotte Dingle as our third candidate for Ladywell. Charlotte lives in the ward and has been an active local Green Party member for some time. In her day job she is the editor of a magazine for lesbian and bisexual women and her hobbies include morris dancing, drawing and playing the guitar. She also has a keen interest in animal rights. If elected, I suspect she may well be Lewisham's first vegan, morris-dancing councillor!

Anyway, you should hopefully see lots more of Charlotte and the rest of our Ladywell team as we try to get out and speak to as many residents as possible over the next few months (it's no mean feat trying to speak to 10,000 people, as well as juggle ongoing council responsibilities). Charlotte will also be posting on this blog too.

Mike will of course be continuing to play a full and active role as Ladywell councillor until next May (and almost certainly long after that through his involvement with many local community groups). Hopefully we will still be able to bend his ear for expert advice on all things ecology-related and I'm sure he will still regularly be seen cleaning off graffiti in and around the ward.

Reminder: Councillor Surgery this Saturday in NEW VENUE

Just a quick reminder, further to my post back in July, that our regular surgery on the 2nd Saturday of the month will, from this Saturday be in Hilly Fields Medical Centre rather than the Old Bothy on Hilly Fields. We are hoping that this will be more comfortable and accessible for residents (and us!) over the colder months.

So, 11am-midday, 2nd Saturday of the month, Ladywell Ward Councillors' Surgery, Hilly Fields Medical Centre, 172 Adelaide Avenue, SE4 1JN. Just ask at the main reception and they will direct you, We will probably be in room 6 just around the corner from reception.

Our other surgery, at St Andrew's Church, on the 4th Saturday of the month, remains unaffected.

Do come along if you have any queries about Council services that you would like to raise with us. Alternatively, you can as always e-mail or call us (contact details in the top right-hand box on this page - hover the cursor over our names for e-mail addresses).

New blog poll: Should solar panels be permited on conservation area properties?

I've set up a poll to gauge readers' views on whether solar panels should be permitted on conservation area properties. Please do vote - you can find it in the right-hand column of the blog.

To be absolutely clear, I'm not claiming any particular scientific validity for the poll, self-selecting as readers of this blog inevitably will be, and it's not in any way an official council consultation, it's just a straw poll.

The poll has come about as a result of an ongoing discussion on an earlier post with a blog reader. My own view is that action to reduce carbon emissions and prevent climate change is a bigger priority than preserving the aesthetic qualities of a conservation area, but that most of the time the two need not be incompatible anyway. I would generally support solar panels on roofs in conservation areas, as long as they were positioned and designed as unobtrusively as possible, and the owners had already taken all reasonable measures to insulate and improve the energy efficiency of the property. ie I'm not into solar panels purely as fashion statements - insulation, an energy efficient boiler etc come first. That said, I don't see preserving the character of the conservation area and doing our bit to reduce our carbon footprints as mutually exclusive, and think St Peter's Church on Wickham Road is a good example of how this can be done sensitively.

Anyway, I would be interested to know what my readers think, so please do participate in the poll, which will run until 20th September.

St Cyprian's Hall to be auctioned off on 22nd September

According to the notice that has just gone up outside it, St Cyprian's Church Hall, on the corner of Brockley Road and Braxfield Road is due to be sold at auction on 22nd September. As well as the church hall (which in itself is a considerable size), I understand that the auction includes the sale of the neighbouring commercial premises and flats above (the undertakers, and the premises on the other side of the hall too).

Taken together, these represent a sizeable site, onto which I imagine some developer will be hoping to squeeze as many flats as possible. As far as I'm aware, none of the buildings are listed, so theoretically they could all be demolished. although the owners has to honour existing leases with the businesses.

Personally, I think it would be a real loss to Brockley Road if these buildings were demolished, and would hope to see a sensitive redevelopment that incorporates at least parts of the existing church hall, and brings the front entrance to the church hall, that has been bricked up for so long, back into use.

The hall and neighbouring premises are 'owned' by the RC Diocese of Southwark, although I know there is some controversy as to whether the diocese actually owns the hall and has the right to sell it, due to a covenant that was allegedly signed when it was transferred over from the Church of England in 1968, which says the building is to be preserved for community use. Back in 2007, when rumours of plans to sell the building surfaced, a group of local residents got together to oppose the plans, but I'm not sure what came of it all. If any of those residents is reading this and would like to get in touch, please do. Given it is about to be sold at auction, I'm assuming the diocese are confident that this is not the case.

It would be nice to see the hall brought back into community use, but I'm rather cynical about the chances of this happening, given the pending auction, the considerable sums of money that need to be spent on the hall roof to make it safe, the proximity of St Andrews and the fact that the hall has not been in proper community use for a while now. The RC Diocese of Southwark has allowed the hall to get into a very run-down state over the years, and over the past few years the number of events, classes etc held at the hall gradually dwindled, until it was closed entirely about a year ago, on health and safety grounds I understand. Furthermore, the diocese's efforts at community consultation and engagement over this have been non-existant, as far as I'm aware.

A potted history of the St Cyprian's Hall, according to Geograph:

"The building was erected in 1881-2 as St Cyprian's mission church in the parish of St Mary, Lewisham (Anglican). It was superseded in 1901 by a new parish church of the same name in Adelaide Road [sic] (which was bombed in WW2) but retained as a parish hall and occasional place of worship until 1968 when it was sold to the Roman Catholics for use as a church hall."

Climate Camp comes to Lewisham!

Exciting news for Lewisham today as climate camp sets up on Blackheath.

I went to both the Heathrow and Kingsnorth camps and found both to be very well organised, and the sites were left in immaculate condition. The main irritation in both cases was the heavy-handed policing.

Brockley ward councillor Darren Johnson and I popped up to the site earlier on today and were impressed with how things were being set up. Happily, policing was reasonably low key and hands off. In fact, campers told us that the local ice cream vans got there before the police vans did (covert surveillance with your Mr Whippy perhaps?!).

The camp runs from now until 2nd September and there is an emphasis on education, awareness-raising and training at this year's camp, with a whole range of workshops on all sorts of things from composting, DIY and yoga to training for non-violent direct action. You can see the full programme of workshops here, and it's all free.

Lewisham Green Party have put out a supportive press release today. Lewisham Lib Dems and Labour in contrast have condemned the climate campers as irresponsible. Hmm, now let me think about that one . . . supporting the building of more motorways, airports and coal-fired power stations, allowing the only wind turbine factory in the country to close, or a group of people camping in a field and discussing practical steps that they need to take to reduce our carbon emissions and curb climate change. Hmm, I know which one I think is more irresponsible, how about you?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussing green stuff with like-minded people and attending some of the workshops at climate camp over the next few days, and hope that the peaceful atmosphere and hands off policing continues.

It's also great to see more micro-renewables in the form of solar panels and wind turbines in Blackheath Conservation Area than have ever been seen before -a dream for a Green councillor who sits on planning and is constantly frustrated by how inadequate our planning policies are to meet the challenges of climate change!

Greenwich Green Darryl also has a nice write-up and photos of the setting up of the camp on his 853 blog.

UPDATE 11pm, 26th August: pleased to see that Lewisham Lib Dems have now released a more positive statement about climate camp following the earlier quotes attributed to Blackheath councillors that appeared on the Guardian website.

Tree removal on Fossil Road

Just a quick post as a number of residents from Fossil Road have contacted us concerned about a street tree being removed. We spoke to an officer from the tree team this morning who clarified that the tree was removed as it had two types of diseases; some kind of fruiting fungal infection that was making the tree go sponge like from the inside, and another which had killed the crown of the tree. There are no plans to remove any other trees from Fossil Road, although one more will be reduced and reshaped.

The Council's arboriculturalist team have recently completed a full survey of the borough's street trees - every one is now logged on their new database and has been prioritised according to how urgently it needs work on it or not, so there should be a noticeable increase in tree works over the next few months as they carry out this work.

The bad news is that I've been told that the budget for street tree planting has already been allocated for this year and that the Fossil Road tree can't get replaced this Autumn. Do people think we should dip into our localities fund to get it replaced sooner, or should we hang on for it to come out of the normal street tree planting budget next year?

I've asked for clarification on how big the tree planting budget is and how big the shortfall is, as I know a number of roads in the ward have 'missing' street trees.

Interestingly, residents tell me that the cherry trees on Fossil Road, which were planted at the same time as the houses were built, are an unusual species that flower three times a year, although we haven't yet found out the name of the tree type - any suggestions on that?

Boris keep your promise!

London currently only has one rape crisis centre to support female victims of rape in a city with 3.9 million women. In his election manifesto, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson promised he would fund three new rape crisis centres for London at a cost of £2,230,000. He said he would divert £744,000 a year that the previous mayor spent on publicity. Since then, however, the cycling mayor has been furiously back-pedalling on this pledge and that figure changed to £1,400,000, 37.3% less. Campaigners, as the video below makes clear, are less than impressed.



It would appear that the mayor who famously referred to his £250k salary for writing his newspaper column as 'chicken feed' isn't placing a very high priority on supporting rape victims. For more details, including ways you can help, visit the Boris Keep Your Promise website.

UPDATE 18th August: There is a petition you can sign about this on the 38 Degrees website.

Pedal-powered screening of 'Age of Stupid' in Deptford this Thursday!

Slightly outside of my usual geographical remit, and unfortunately clashing with Transition Brockley's film at St Andrew's this Thursday, but this sounds like a good event:

Oxfam’s Pedal Powered Outdoor Cinema
plus panel discussion with local leaders, the film’s director and climate campaigners!
Thursday 6th August 2009, Doors open at 7:30pm
Laban Outdoor Theatre, Creekside, Deptford, SE8 3DZ
LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE & ONE NIGHT ONLY!!

Showing award winning film with Peter Postlethwaite:
For your free ticket and more info please e-mail Sophie Freeman or call 020 7802 9971.

New links added

Just added a few new links to this site. First up, Deptford Misc, a new blog by long-term Deptford resident and campaigner Bill Ellson join the ranks of Deptford Dame and Caroline's Miscellany.
And a couple of newish Green bloggers added are Green Kentish Town and Matt Sellwood for Hackney. Any more I've missed?

Open Gym wins social enterprise competition!

Congratulations to local resident and founder of Open Gym, Jo Hill, who is one of three winners of a competition organised by Cancer Research UK. The Open Gym concept, which is currently operating in Hilly Fields, Telegraph Hill Park and two parks in north London, will now be rolled out nationwide, along with two other projects, as part of a plan to raise £10m for Cancer Research UK*.

It's a great concept - get people out doing exercise, which in itself reduces the risk of people getting cancer, and at the same time raise money for a cancer charity. I've recently started going to Open Gym, and find it more motivating than being stuck in a gym or going to an indoor fitness class. Too many hours spent in front of this computer or in council meetings mean that I'm currently the undisputed least fit participant in the Hilly Fields Open Gym (to the extent that the instructor has to give me easier variations on some of the exercises!), but I'm hoping to persevere!

So once again congratulations Jo!

*I have long had mixed feelings about Cancer Research UK - on the one hand they clearly do a lot of good work, and as someone who watched their father die an unpleasant death due to cancer, I'm as keen as anyone to find a cure. However, I don't agree with their ongoing funding of tests on animals, and prefer to donate to other cancer charities, such as Marie Curie or the Lavender Trust.

Transition Brockley - films, 3 tonne club, carrot-mobbing, swishing and more!

Transition Brockley, a group of local residents who have got together to look at how the local community needs to adapt and prepare for a low-carbon, fossil fuel-free future (due to peak oil and climate change) has now had 5 or so well-attended meetings, and its members are working on a number of projects. You can join their e-mail discussion list here and check out the Transition Lewisham website here. Below are a few of the projects they are working on, and would welcome more people to help with. Lots of great ideas; do get involved if you can:
FILMS
The first two in a series of film showings are planned for Thursday 6th August and Thursday 10th September at 7pm in St Andrew's Church Hall (corner of Brockley Road/Wickham Road). There will be a small charge of £2 to cover the hall cost. Both the films to be shown look at how dependent food production is on the availability of oil.

On 6th August they will be showing The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil and on 10th September they will be showing Farm for the Future, in which wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family's farm in Devon into a low energy farm (recently shown on BBC 2 and it's available online in 3 parts if you can't make the showing).

Contact Alex or Fran if you'd like to help with the above. There are also tentative plans afoot to make a local film about action in Brockley.

THREE TONNE CLUB
A group of TTBers recently held a very convivial meeting where everybody calculated their carbon footprint over a glass of wine or two. They were using the 'Three Tonne Handbook' from the Women's Environmental Network, which offers tips on how you can reduce your footprint down to 3 tonnes a year (apparently the UK average is around 13.5 tonnes). The group have formed a 'Three Tonne Club' and will organise another “weigh-in” in due course. If you want to measure your carbon footprint then go to Carbon Independent. E-mail Tamara to join the club!

FOOD GROWING
Transition Brockley is also looking at identifying possible spaces in the neighbourhood to grow food/set up community gardens. They are in contact with Pinnacle about one or two possible sites in the area, have been along to courses at Frendsbury Garden and are keen to work with Brockley Cross Action group on the community orchard project. A couple of people are mulling over producing a book of recipes using local produce (Brockley Honey flapjacks, anyone?!). One member, Ruth, is already busy with the community garden she's been instrumental in getting started at St Saviour's Church. Contact Ruth for further information or to offer to help with this. I'm also following up on one or two possible Ladywell sites for food-growing.

BROCKLEY SWISHING/CLUB NIGHT?
A swishing event is when a group of friends get together and have a party and swap unwanted but still useable clothes with each other. Rosa, from TTB is hoping to organise a club night/swishing/freecycling event in Brockley in October. Contact Rosa if you want to get involved.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT
TTB have submitted a number of proposals to Lewisham Council as part of the first year of the Sustainable Communities Act, which they hope will be taken forward as part of Lewisham's proposals to be passed on to the LGA (Local Government Association). (See previous post for submissions we made to this.)

CARROT MOBBING
Finally, but perhaps one of the most fun ideas, is the suggestion of a 'Brockley Carrot Mob'. The basic proposition behind carrot mobbing, is that you talk to local bars / pubs / restaurants and ask them what percentage of their profits they would invest in eco-efficiency measures to their business if you organise a group of people to spend an evening at their bar / restaurant. You then choose the business that offers the largest percentage and perhaps also consider the need for efficiency measures and organise an evening out. Then the next day the 'experts' are sent in to carry out whatever work money has been raised for. See Carrot Mob and 9 carrots for two similar takes on this. We sounded out Graham at Mr Lawrence's about this - he was quite keen, and we were keen to get more energy efficient light bulbs in there as a start!

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Change to Ladywell Ward Councillors' Surgery Details

We've decided to switch the venue for one of our councillor surgeries from September. We currently have two surgeries a month; one at the Old Bothy, Hilly Fields on the second Saturday of the month (11-12pm) and another at St Andrew's Church, Brockley Road, on the fourth Saturday of the month (11-12pm).

While the Old Bothy works well for the summer months, it's a bit grim in the winter, and accessibility is less than perfect. Therefore we're moving that surgery to Hilly Fields Medical Centre on Adelaide Avenue. Same time, still second Saturday of the month, just a hopefully more comfortable venue. We won't be holding surgeries in August, but as always you are welcome to phone or e-mail us with any queries (contact details in sidebar at top).

Save Vestas!

The only wind turbine factory in the UK, Vestas, on the Isle of Wight, is due to close at the end of this month with the loss of 600 jobs. At a time when we need to be massively increasing our renewables capacity in this country and investing in wind power, this is absurd.

The company is closing the factory despite rising profits and has taken a threatening and aggressive line towards workers protesting to save their jobs. It seems bizarre that the factory was creating blades for US wind turbines rather than the European market - a great example of globalisation gone awry. The government says the blades aren't the right specification for here. So modify things for goodness sake - don't lose the local expertise that's been built on now.

The government coughed up the dosh (ie our money) to prop up the car industry and the banks; now it's time for them to invest just a fraction of that in saving this factory, the jobs of the 600 workers, and with it our hopes of developing a viable low-carbon energy supply to replace our coal-fired power stations . To do otherwise yet claim to be green would be rank hypocrisy. Time for Ed Milliband and Joan Ruddock at the Department for Energy and Climate Change to stand up to the unelected Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, one Peter Mandelson, and demand he shows a bit of bloody innovation in saving these jobs.

Gordon Brown has talked a lot recently about creating green jobs, but he seems somewhat short on action. He also seems to include decidedly brown sectors such as nuclear power and coal-fired power stations within his definition of green. The Green Party's policies in contrast would create a million new jobs in genuinely green industries.

There was a demonstration in outside the DECC offices in London tonight, which Darren spoke at - I didn't go, but sent a message of support to the campaign via savevestas@googlemail.com.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP, in whose constituency the factory is located, has also sent a message of support to workers and spoken out against the proposed closure.

Ladywell CPZ Consultation - coming through a letterbox near you any day now!

I've just heard that the long-awaited Ladywell CPZ (controlled parking zone) consultation documents are back from the printers today, and distribution to local households could start as soon as this weekend. Regular readers will know that this is something many local residents have been requesting for several years and we have been flagging up their concerns to highways and Mayor & Cabinet since 2006.

You can see the map of the area they plan to consult here, and the consultation document should also be available to download on the Council website soon. The form just says the rather vague 'return within three weeks' as they don't want to put off those who are on holiday from completing the form when they get back. I've been assured that they will accept forms right up until they start compiling the results, which will be in about six weeks time.

An exhibition of the proposals, where there will also be a chance to discuss them with highways officers, will be held next Friday and Saturday at the Wearside depot:

Friday 17 July 2009 from 10am to 8pm
Saturday 18 July 2009 from 10am to 5pm
at The Visitor Centre, Wearside Depot,
Wearside Road, London SE13 7BR

Previously I've been fairly ambivalent about CPZs, not being a car-owner myself, and I'm still not a staunch advocate, but over recent years I've become more convinced of the merits of a CPZ in the Ladywell area because:

• We get lots of complaints from residents who say they can't park in their street due to commuters parking in the area then going to the train station/hospital/town centre. We then get residents leaving out traffic cones to reserve 'their' parking space, causing conflict and tension between drivers.
• A CPZ won't magically enable residents to park their car outside their house, but it should increase their chances of being able to park their car somewhere near their house.
• While to an extent a CPZ simply displaces the problem to outside the zone, it may also prompt a few people to leave their car at home and use public transport.
• The extension of the Lewisham CPZ in the Loampit Vale and top of Algernon Road area a few years back has had a negative knock-on effect on the rest of Algernon Road and surrounding streets.
  
• The proposed developments in Lewisham Town Centre are likely to create extra pressure on parking spaces in the area, and if residents of the new homes can't park there (they won't get residents parking permits), they may well look to park in Ladywell.
  
• The consultation also asks for views on some extra short stay parking at the top of roads adjoining Ladywell Road. This is something that local shopkeepers often cite as being lacking and key to their business.
• The consultation also offers the opportunity to get more car club spaces in the area, which again has been shown to reduce car ownership and free up parking space on roads.
• The more CPZs we have in the borough, the more revenue in the highways budget to sort out the appalling state of roads in this area. Boroughs such as Camden which is almost entirely CPZ, have significantly more revenue to spend on resurfacing works than Lewisham does.
  

So I anticipate returning my form in favour of the CPZ, and in support of car club spaces and more short stay parking near businesses, but I will wait until after the drop in event to make my mind up for sure.

Whatever your views on CPZs, it's important that if you live in the area you respond and make your views known. Unlike some consultations where it seems that the decision has already been made, that is not the case with CPZs - Lewisham's policy is that they only go ahead when a clear majority in the area are in favour, so do make sure your voice is heard.

"Green Team for Ladywell for 2010?!"

Well, not quite, but it may have got a few people's attention! I thought this photo of Ute after judging the 'Best Scarecrow' competition at the Ladywell Day Centre Summer Fete today deserved a wider audience. Surely the one with the rather bling jewellery and leopard skin tights would be enough to scare even the most hardy of London pigeons!

As always, the fete was a great event, with users of day centres from across the borough coming to Ladywell for the day. There were a wide range of arts and crafts, plants and cakes for sale, many produced by centre users. I bought a few bizzie lizzies for my garden which were grown by the gardening group at the centre.

As for Green Party candidates for the May 2010 local council elections, we have now put out the formal call for nominations to our party members, with a deadline for the first tranche of wards at the beginning of September. We are keen to recruit a diverse range of candidates from all sectors of the community. If you're interested in finding out more about what standing as a candidate and (potentially) being a councillor involves, feel free to e-mail me with you contact details to discuss further. You would need to be a party member before the close of nominations and broadly agree with our principles and policies of course!

Mast Proposal: railway line between Foxborough Gardens and Prendergast Ladywell Fields School

I've received notification from Network Rail that they plan to put a 15m monopole mast on the stretch of line between Foxborough Gardens and Prendergast Ladywell Fields (formerly Crofton School).

The letter says that the mast is part of plans by Network Rail to "rollout a nationwide Railways Communications System across the entire network" and that this new radio system will for the very first time, allow direct and continuous communication between train drivers and signallers which will improve safety, reliability and punctuality on the rail network".

The letter says that they are aware that the construction of any mast may be of concern to residents who live nearby and that they plan to notify those residents before construction takes place, with information on the new system and a 24-hour helpline for any questions or queries. It also says that they are in discussion with Lewisham's Planning Department, but that they believe the mast falls within their permitted development rights to maintain and ensure the safe operation of the railway.

As far as I can tell from the map, the nearest homes to the proposed site are in Sinclair Place (just off Manwood Road) and the homes in Foxborough Gardens that back onto the railway line.

I don't have any more information about the type of mast being proposed or what the potential risks are, but I thought I should flag it up to readers, as I know that those concerned about the proliferation of mobile masts recently (eg of the Ladywell water tower in nearby Dressington Avenue) may want to be informed.